Red Letter Media (stylized as RedLetterMedia) is a film/video production company operated by independent filmmakers Mike Stoklasa (previously of GMP Pictures) and Jay Bauman (formerly of Blanc Screen Cinema). The company was formed by Stoklasa in 2004 while living in Scottsdale, Arizona, but is now based in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. Stoklasa himself attracted significant attention in 2009, through a 70-minute video review of the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The review was posted in seven parts on YouTube, and presented by his character "Harry S. Plinkett". While Stoklasa had published other video reviews for the Star Trek films in The Next Generation series prior to this, The Phantom Menace and subsequent Star Wars prequel reviews were praised for both content and presentation.

Half in the Bag is a regularly released series in which Stoklasa and Bauman do more traditional movie reviews. Stoklasa has described it as a cross between Siskel and Ebert and a 1980s sitcom, with himself and Bauman as Lightning Fast VCR Repair employees who discuss newly released movies, as well as some cult classics, comic book conventions, and other film projects they engage in.

A regularly released series in which members of RedLetterMedia watch and review several tapes/discs which they expect will be terrible. After the viewing parties, a rotating panel of four people affiliated with RedLetterMedia sit and discuss what they have just watched. Panels typically consist of any combination of Mike Stoklasa, Jay Bauman, Rich Evans, Jack Packard, Jessi Nakles, their friend Josh (The Wizard), and/or special guests.

On May 24, 2016, the company released the first episode of a new series called "re:View". Compared to the company's other shows, the format is a much more stripped down and straight forward approach to film critique. Two members of RedLetterMedia sit in front of a red curtain and offer thoughts and insight on a "classic" film such as Tremors, Eraserhead, and Ghostbusters. Clips of the film being discussed are interwoven, typically to lend emphasis to a specific point being made, or to showcase some of the most memorable moments from the film.

In an effort to generate more content with greater frequency for the website, Rich Evans introduced Game Station 2.0 in which he presented brief reviews of video games. After four episodes, the show failed to garner much of a following, and has since been defunct. On YouTube, the shows have surpassed 100,000 views, which is in line with most Red Letter Media videos such as Best of the Worst and Half in the Bag.

On April 15, 2014, a re-tooled video game review show appeared on the website. Re-titled Previously Recorded and now featuring Rich Evans along with Jack Packard, the show quickly found an audience among RedLetterMedia's already well-established fanbase, although most episodes are only receiving around 5,000 views.

Storing Original Post for Posterity's Sake - Updating First and Second Posts with More Information

Originally Posted by Ether_Snake

Should make an official Red Letter Media thread.

Sounds good to me!

What is Red Letter Media?

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

RedLetterMedia is a motion picture production company headed by Milwaukee-based independent filmmaker Mike Stoklasa, previously of GMP Pictures, as well as Jay Bauman, formerly of Blanc Screen Cinema. Filmmaker Mike Stoklasa attracted significant attention in 2009 through a seventy-minute video review of the 1999 film Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The review was posted in seven parts on YouTube, and presented by his character "Mr. Plinkett". While Stoklasa had published other video reviews for the Star Trek films in The Next Generation series prior to this, The Phantom Menace and subsequent Star Wars prequel reviews were praised for both content and presentation. Stoklasa has produced other works under the RedLetterMedia banner, including short comedies and webseries (The Grabowskis), as well as concert videos, wedding and corporate videos. His low-budget features have been largely horror and comedy, and have included Feeding Frenzy, The Recovered, and Oranges: Revenge of the Eggplant. Jay Bauman, who had directed Mike in several low-budget features under the Blanc Screen Cinema banner, has been a director and producer working with Mike on most of his recent projects.

Wait, so who plays Mr. Plinkett? He sounds different in the reviews!!!

I'm not going to lie. I have a hard time sitting through a lot of the stuff here. But there are some nuggets of gold. The Grabowskis had some enjoyable episodes. Season 1 takes all of three minutes to watch. The rest of it...very experimental to say the least. Just try sitting through the Monkey Man stuff. I dare you. But click the Summary Page for all of your option or the ones I highlighted below that I enjoyed. Completely watch at your own risk...

Star Trek: TNG Films - The first collection of reviews by Mr. Plinkett, acting as Stoklasa's outlet to vent his rage against Star Trek reviews. For those who have only watched the Star Wars reviews, these reviews show the evolution of the character, introduces us to Mr. Plinkett's first two wives, and brings us the lovable scamp, that one dude in First Contact who questions Picard's plan. That dude shows up in the Episode I and II reviews, as well as in the Insurrection review (I don't think he was in the Nemesis review though).

Star Trek 2009: The Duology - After the movie came out, a quick short "review" was released in which a giant Star Trek poster rapes a woman in an alley. It wasn't truly a Plinkett review as it did not feature his character at all. A while after, in between the Episode II and Episode III reviews, Stoklasa wanted to clean his palate by doing a proper Plinkett review of Star Trek. And he liked it! Perhaps the only really positive review Plinkett has ever done.

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy - Probably the reason this thread is even being made. After doing four TNG movies, Stoklasa turned his sights on the Star Wars prequel trilogy (and, by proxy, the Special Editions of the original trilogy) with the 70 minute Phantom Menace review. After appearing on Simon Pegg and Damon Lindelof Twitter pages, RLM was on the rise.

This was followed about five months later with the 90 minute Attack of the Clones review. The AotC review was notable because the first of nine parts was taken down by YouTube, on a claim from the Cartoon Network. It was never explained why (perhaps because they used clips from The Last Starfighter?) and was eventually reinstated, but the damage was done. From that day forward, RLM videos appeared first on Blip.tv, with only a few exceptions (like the Half in the Bag Special Edition).

Finally, after a Baby's Day Out and Star Trek intervening, the Episode III review was released on New Year's Eve 2010. A few months after that, the Rise of Nadine epilogue to the trilogy of reviews (which had a running subplot about a hooker Plinkett had kidnapped) was released. After this review, Stoklasa was no longer stuck with Star Trek or Star Wars reviews. He was free to turn his sights elsewhere. But where?

Other Film Reviews - During and after the Star Wars prequel trilogy reviews, Stoklasa and the Plinkett character reviewed some other films. First up was Avatar, reviewed in between Episode I and Episode II. The closest thing Plinkett came to a non-negative review until Star Trek (2009), this review was more critical of the audience reaction and film tricks employed by Cameron. Not really a huge negative, but critiques the story a bit. After Episode II, Baby's Day Out was reviewed. To understand why, you'll have to watch the Episode II review climax. Finally, a movie I really though Stoklasa had made up for one of his reviews, Cop Dog was reviewed in 2011. You just have to watch to understand...

Half in the Bag was Stoklasa's next big venture after completing the Star Wars prequels. Not willing or able to create Plinkett reviews on a regular basis (note: author's interpretation), Stoklasa instead teamed up with RLM partner Jay Bauman to create a bi-weekly (ish) review program called Half in the Bag. The premise is Mike and Jay play Mike and Jay, VCR repairmen who are hired on by Mr. Plinkett (played by Rich Evans, who plays Mr. Plinkett in physical form in all the RLM media, but is not the Plinkett who reviews movies, voiced by Stoklasa) to fix his VCR. Instead, they find ways not to fix it and still get billable hours from the absent-minded Plinkett, while reviewing both current movies (90% of the time) and either classic or classically bad movies of yesteryear (like Samurai Cop and The Rocketeer.)

Some people (like me) really enjoy getting their take on the movies of the time, some wonder why he bothered with anything other than the Plinkett reviews. At the end of the day, Stoklasa and Bauman are funny and engaging and have a smart take on film, being film makers themselves. [Plinkett]But make up your own mind, idiots.[/Plinkett]

I have not seen any of these movies, so if someone would like to comment, I would be happy to include summaries in this space. Feeding Frenzy is the only one made since the success of the Plinkett reviews, and it has gotten some reviews on blog sites that enjoyed it. One of these days, I will buy it and check it out for myself. In lieu of that happening, I'll simply link the individual sites and copy+paste the summary on RLM's web site. There are trailers and behind the scenes on some of these items.

A mysterious old man named Mr. Plinkett is keeping a deep dark secret locked away in the basement of a small-town hardware store: vicious, flesh-eating creatures with a mysterious past. Once these creatures escape, all hell breaks loose and it’s up to Jesse, an incompetent hardware store employee, to stop them from turning the town into a feeding frenzy! FEEDING FRENZY is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the rubber puppet monster movies of the 1980′s such as CRITTERS, GHOULIES and every other low-budget film that ripped off GREMLINS.

The Recovered” is an atmospheric horror film starring b-movie queen Tina Krause (Bloodletting, Vampire Seduction) as a woman returning to her hometown after fifteen years to make preparations for her estranged mother’s funeral, only to be haunted by long-repressed memories of a childhood horror.

In the tradition of SOUTH PARK comes the harrowing tale of Professor Charles Sunkyst and his fateful encounter with the diabolical Dr. Eggplant. After a mission in Bananastan to rescue the president, Sunkyst returns to teaching his class on advanced particle physics at the nearby university. But Dr. Eggplant lusts for revenge and slips onto campus to become involved in the annual science fair! During the violence and adventure that ensues, Sunkyst and his students must rally together to thwart Eggplant’s evil plot!

Same here. I wish he did them more often, like at least once a week. It's also disappointing when we wait 2+ months for a review and it ends up being for some random stupid terrible movie. I want to see the same Star Wars Plinkett criticism with other popular films. (I know he's done stuff other than Star Wars but I wish he'd do it with some more recent popular movies, there's half in the bag but those are actual reviews and not Plinkett stuff.)

If there is enough demand, I can simply update the OP with full length HitB episodes and not add a post. But there will be a new Plinkett review soon enough...I have foreseen it...

Originally Posted by firehawk12

So the Half in the Bag thing is a review series, but not in the "Plinkett" character? Are they still... I dunno, overly in depth and hilariously pointless?

They're pretty in depth for an online movie review show and they have a different take on how films ought to progress. It should tell you something that they reviewed The Rocketeer along with Captain America and one of them (Stoklasa) holds Rocketeer as one of his favorite movies. (In my OP, I went over this a bit...)

I love half in the bag too, i mean look, it's unthinkable to have Plinkett do the official reviews in any considerable consistency given the HUGE amount of quality in both the production and the writing (analysis and humor are always keen as can be).

the repairmen are smart, funny and they are a great way for RLM to have a consistent output on new showings

His Star Wars reviews are so on the money that I can't even watch the prequels anymore because I hear his voice as I'm watching them. Once the flaws are pointed out, the films become next to unwatchable. I also enjoyed his review of First Contact. I hate it just as much as he does.

He should do the Transformers trilogy next! That would make my decade.

Also, which guy is plinkett >.>? Cause in the half in the bag stuff, the guy who does plinkett doesnt realllllllllllly sound like him.

The two friends started out making indie backyard movies. The guy on the right created and acted "the original" Mr Plinkett.

The guy on the left is the one who decided to make the Star Trek/Star Wars movie reviews on Youtube, but he decided that he didn't want to use his own voice, he wanted a fake voice, so he did an impression of his friend's Mr Plinkett character. So his voice is the "fake" Mr Plinkett, but everyone likes him better than the real one.

The guy on the right now gets to act and voice the original Mr Plinkett whenever he's seen on screen. But when it's just the voice, it's the guy on the left.

The two friends started out making indie backyard movies. The guy on the right created and acted "the original" Mr Plinkett.

The guy on the left is the one who decided to make the Star Trek/Star Wars movie reviews on Youtube, but he decided that he didn't want to use his own voice, he wanted a fake voice, so he did an impression of his friend's Mr Plinkett character. So his voice is the "fake" Mr Plinkett, but everyone likes him better than the real one.

The guy on the right now gets to act and voice the original Mr Plinkett whenever he's seen on screen. But when it's just the voice, it's the guy on the left.

Just to be clear, by the "guy on the left" you mean the skinnier younger dude right?

His Star Wars reviews are so on the money that I can't even watch the prequels anymore because I hear his voice as I'm watching them. Once the flaws are pointed out, the films become next to unwatchable. I also enjoyed his review of First Contact. I hate it just as much as he does.

He should do the Transformers trilogy next! That would make my decade.

They're very unique filmmakers and quite funny as well, but I've always had problems with their reviews of the Star Wars prequels. It's not that I think they're good movies (they range from slightly below average to a notch above mediocre), but in applying that level of nitty gritty analysis one could make almost any film seem pretty flawed..including several of the all time greats.

A lot of their character complaints also seem to be based on the assumption that each and every character SHOULD always take the path that makes the most sense at any given time. These are space operas.. and not very good ones at that (unlike Episodes 4 and 5)..the plots were only ever meant to be in service of setting up the next set piece..to try and look for air tight motivations and set ups is to miss the point. Sure, George Lucas failed at putting lipstick on the pig..but what difference does it make in the long run?

They do highlight some important differences between the original trilogy and the new one that bring out a lot of fail though. Off the top of my head, Yoda doing a complete 180 on his ESB speech by fighting with a saber, the ever expanding climax in each successive film and the overly convoluted structures are all good points.

They're very unique filmmakers and quite funny as well, but I've always had problems with their reviews of the Star Wars prequels. It's not that I think they're good movies (they range from slightly below average to a notch above mediocre), but in applying that level of nitty gritty analysis one could make almost any film seem pretty flawed..including several of the all time greats.

A lot of their character complaints also seem to be based on the assumption that each and every character SHOULD always take the path that makes the most sense at any given time. This is space opera.. and not very good ones at that.. most of it is just in service of the action..to try and look for air tight motivations and set ups is to miss the point.

They do highlight some important differences between the original trilogy and the new one that bring out a lot of fail though. Off the top of my head, Yoda doing a complete 180 on his ESB speech by fighting with a saber, and the ever expanding climax's leading to overly convoluted structures were both very good points.

Critiquing the Plinkett reviews is difficult because in many cases the things that are "wrong" with them are intended, and the problem only arises when people don't realize that much of it is exaggeration, or are totally invalid complaints. It's difficult or impossible to tell actual screwups on his part from just another layer of intentional distortion.

Dream crushing, round two: only Half in the Bag updates. I didn't update for Ep. 15 because it was just the Chicago Comic Con episode, but they did a HitB for Fright Night and Conan...so I updated for that.

Dream crushing, round two: only Half in the Bag updates. I didn't update for Ep. 15 because it was just the Chicago Comic Con episode, but they did a HitB for Fright Night and Conan...so I updated for that.